The World Almanac Children's Atlas

Gr 2–4—Colorful and well-organized, this beginner's atlas provides a fun introduction to map-reading. A consistent color-coding scheme is employed throughout the table of contents and page headings to help readers keep continents straight, and the authors maintain interest with full-color, informatively captioned photographs and a variety of international stamps. An overview section entitled "Our Planet Earth" opens the volume. Sections focusing on each continent follow; all begin with an overview that includes topographical and political maps and fact boxes, then launch into spreads that address regions, with some larger countries covered on their own spread. (The United States, in addition to a country page, has state pages arranged by region.) On these pages lies the only flaw in the book's design; while a section may cover several countries, often only a few are selected to be featured with their flag and basic facts, making it difficult to determine which countries are included in the listing without extensive poring over maps. A section of "Quiz Questions" (many of which seem prohibitively challenging even for adults) and an index close the volume.—Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD